I agree with Judy on this one, if you look in the other photo's, there is some degree of reverse taper. Now this may be an optical illusion from the camera angle and proximity to the lens of camera. But it appears to me from these photo's you have some reverse taper. I really like the movement on JM9, or even maybe a little rotation (maybe 5 degrees) clockwise. The scarring on the uppermost of this tree is distracting to me. If it were mine I would remove this portion. This is only a suggestion as this is not my tree. Here is a poorly done virtual trimming (my photo program is very limiting). If the top is removed,you will have a large scar but it will be on the back side of the tree. With a little rotation the new top will be bowing right to you. And this tree looks to be very healthy with all of the small branches and buds. So if the upper part is removed allowing sunlight to hit that section of trunk you should get some budding in the area where there is no branches. Seal the cut well and allow one good sacrifice branch above the cut, this should callus over fairly quickly. Hope this helps, you have an outstanding start to a beautiful tree. Enjoy, Don.

Nice find. Not a good time to prune it, it will bleed out significantly. March, take out of pot cut off down growing roots, make sure you only have roots growing to sides, then you can prune it. Cut roots and branches at same time= no bleed. Think about what you want the tree to be. Larger lower branches on the outside of curve, keep but shorten. Large branches on inside of curves or at top of tree, remove and clean up, use grafting knife to trim flush.

You bought the tree, what do you want to see as a finished height and scale?

Thank you John. Judy and Owen helped me pick this one out. I was browsing bay island bonsai gallery and noticed two Japanese Maples (I think) that have the desirable structure I want for my maple. I'm going to follow Judy's advice about transplanting into a much large pot. I do not want to do it in this weather because it is still below 40 degrees. I'm not sure what do mean by "inside" curves and "outside" curves. So this is what I'm aiming for.

OK, I know both of those trees, I thinkI helped repot, or at least moss, the first one a 2-3 years ago for the show. Both are trident maples, both are very large and spent a decade or more in the ground. You have a nice tree. Wait until earl spring, bare root and then see where the best nebari line is and then repot into a growing container and prune.

The leaves fell of and dried up quickly on this one. I pulled them off and decided it's time to prune hard. As I mentioned before, most of the branches were thick with no movement -just plain ugly. Today, I took in a lot of consideration on which ones to prune. If there was a bud growing by the base of the branch, I cut it back to the bud. I tried not to remove branches in the same area to discontinue sap flow. One of the branches I decided to cut halfway by the base. It was the thickness branch so I decided to do it in sections to avoid die back on the trunk. Maybe I could of totally removed but, I decided to go the safe route. I still have a lot of work to do on top; however, I already have a huge cut there that needs to fill in.